


three kids & a booth

by Bugggghead



Series: Bughead Drabbles & One Shots [22]
Category: Archie Comics, Archie Comics & Related Fandoms, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Childhood vignettes, F/M, Fluffy, Fluffyfest, One Shot, POV Third Person, Pop's POV, Snapshots of adolescence, Through the Years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-25 11:49:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15640158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bugggghead/pseuds/Bugggghead
Summary: Can you write a cute little Bughead fic from Pop's point of view? -anonymous





	three kids & a booth

**Author's Note:**

> Can you write a cute little Bughead fic from Pop's point of view? -anonymous 
> 
>  
> 
> Sure anon! This was really fun and so very different from anything else I’ve ever written. Thank you @jandjsalmon for being the amazing beta rockstar that you are. ❤❤❤

 

 

 

 

*

**age 6**

Three kids sit in the booth, one parent for all, sitting at the counter, sipping on coffee and filling out invoices. They order three cheeseburgers: one double with extra everything, one double as it comes, and one single with ketchup only. Three shakes come a while later, earning him earnest thank yous and witness to a high five between the boys.

Their shakes match their hair: chocolate for the beanie-wearing boy, strawberry for the smiling redhead, and vanilla for the little blonde angel sitting across from them both. Their giggles bounce off the walls, lighting the room in a way fluorescents never could.

They’re regulars. Friends. Family as the years wear on.

**age 8**

Every Friday they come in, on steady rotation between two parents. All three are still there, sometimes one of their siblings joins - one older, one younger - but never at the same time, never more than four total. When the younger girl is there she smiles, asking for extra whipped cream and eating as much as her brother - despite the age difference; even though it’s only a few years. Pop notices he cares for her like a parent, like the parent he never sees should. When the older sibling of the blonde joins, the boys are enraptured with her, fascinated by mundane things like nail polish and the flip phone she shows off.  _Boys_ , he thinks.

He looks forward to their visits. Alone or all together. Though the dark-haired siblings eat dinner at the diner so often he packs them plates to go, never charging them, saying JB can pay in smiles and her brother in company.

The three friends are always smiling and from his perch behind the counter, it’s positively infectious. Happiness can be found in the simplest of places and the smallest of gestures, enveloping them all as they sit in the same red vinyl booth.

**age 10**

Fridays become Saturdays, one boy in a soccer uniform, the other in jeans just a size too small, and the girl always polished and perfect. He notices her change first, laughing a little louder when the redhead makes a joke - even when it’s not funny. The other boy looks on, smiling with the group, oblivious to the subtle changes in their dynamic only wisdom can see. Their siblings still come from time to time, but the older one comes with a boy, and younger comes less and less.

He’s watched them grow for years, watched their parents before them, and he can’t help but feel a bit protective when two come in with new shoes, and one with holes in the same pair he’s seen for months. He picks up a pair at Goodwill a week later.

**age 12**

The group still comes in, though they look much more grown now for their scant 12 years. They laugh as much as ever, trading jabs and fries late into the night. It’s Fridays and Saturdays now, with a weeknight or two here or there after a game. He watches them all with adoration. Young friendships are hard to come by and they’re always together - the three musketeers he’s heard them call themselves.

But they’ve all grown, developed, advanced. The blond is whip-smart, constantly carrying a book - or three - and quoting poems he’s never heard before. The redhead talks about sports and games and occasionally when it’s just him and the other boy, girls. The beanie’s still on his head, now fitting more properly as the years wear on. His pants are still short, the shoes Pop bought long outgrown, but his shirts don’t always have holes. And his friends don’t seem to mind.

Milkshakes and burgers are the currency of friendship he forges with the group. They’re becoming their own people. Growing into individuals, shaping up to be good kids.

**age 14**

Archie - as he insists on being called, not Archibald as Pop has always known him - talks about nothing but girls and games, still. Jughead - beanie still welded to his skull, hair now just long enough to peek messily from underneath the cap - talks about books, and movies, and anything except the fact that his sister has been gone for a year.

Jughead stares a little longer at the blonde when she recounts her tales from summer camp while looking at Archie with stars in her eyes. Pop sees it, but he knows Jughead doesn’t. Betty has grown too, as always, looking prim and proper in her pastel cardigans and polished ponytail. Poor boy, Pop thinks, he only has eyes for her, but she only has eyes for their friend. Archie brings in a girl one night, and he knows things will soon change.

What a tricky thing adolescent affection can be. But it doesn’t seem to bother them at all, still thick as thieves, ordering the same thing, burgers and shakes, without fail. And smiling. Always smiling.

**age 16**

School just started, they’re all sophomores now, acquainted enough with high school not to be nervous but still new enough to feel the excitement radiating off of them as they sit crammed together in the same old booth. Two boys on one side, two girls on the other. A fourth has joined their group, a dark-haired girl who is glued to Betty’s side. Pop sees the way Archie’s eyes linger on her a little longer, the way he waits for everyone else to get up first before trailing behind her like a puppy dog. He knows Betty sees it too, knows it from the way her shoulders slump a little the first time it happens and little less with each passing visit.

Soon it’s sometimes four but more often two sitting beside each other in the booth. Something must have changed because Jughead holds Betty’s hand now when they enter, she lays her head on his shoulder after he presses a kiss to her hands. Pop sees the same look of unaffected adoration in Jughead’s eyes that he’s seen since they were kids, only this time, the stars in Betty’s eyes are only for him.

He hopes they make it through the rough tides of their teenage years. They’re good kids, always have been, and they both deserve to find happiness. And if it’s with each other, well, Pop thinks that’s pretty great.

**age 18**

The four become two as Archie and Veronica leave for college after graduation. Jughead and Betty stay behind to attend community college. He hears talks of future plans -  _if they can just be frugal for a few years_. They’re excited when they tell him, their eyes shining with something that seems a lot like hope. He thinks it’s for each other, but they say it’s for the future - he figures it’s all one in the same. He offers them both jobs, having overheard the tenuous conversations about budgets and rents and debates about where to reside. He offers them the apartment in the back, too, and they take it in a split second, not even discussing before an echoing yes comes from both of their mouths.

He sees it now, the love they’ve always had, deepened, matured, shaped into something so beautiful he can’t help but wish them the best this life has to offer.

 

 

*

**Author's Note:**

> What did you think?!
> 
> Come find me on tumblr @bugggghead
> 
> Comments always appreciated! ♡♡♡


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